Blog

We just finished a four day stay in a very empty Yosemite Valley. On account of the massive fire on the parks northern boundary the majority of the campers and traffic disappeared. We stayed at Camp 4 which normally fills all days of the week all summer long by 8 am. Camp 4 was the only campground in which we saw any large group of people. Most all the other camp grounds where ghost towns. For the most part this left the park to us to explore with almost no one else around. Although Yosemite in August is typically a dry period, only Vernal and Nevada falls had any water falling at all, the Merced river was barley a large creek. Everything else in the park was bone dry. We spent a good amount of time enjoying the valley floor with out the parades of tourists photographing every deer on the side of the road. Went on a few hikes to see the valley from above. We where very lucky that the central valley had not filled with smoke yet as the wind kept the smoke moving to the north east. Next up we head north into the Redwood's and into Oregon. - Carson